At the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and a high-ranking delegation of the Vietnamese Government paid a State visit to India from July 30 to August 1, 2024.

At the talks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh conveyed the warm regards of President To Lam and National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leaders and people of India, and sincerely thanked the leaders of India for sending condolences and sending the National Security Advisor to pay their respects to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, an exemplary and outstanding leader who devoted his life to the country and people of Vietnam.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on behalf of himself and the 1.4 billion people of India, expressed his deepest condolences for the great loss of the country and people of Vietnam; affirmed that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is a close friend of the people of India. India always appreciates the valuable contributions of the General Secretary to the relationship between the two countries.

The two Prime Ministers had in-depth, sincere and trustworthy discussions on bilateral cooperation as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern. The two leaders emphasized that the Vietnam-India relationship is rooted in history, nurtured by generations of previous leaders and the people of the two countries, and that the two countries need to continue to cherish and preserve the strong traditional friendship, a valuable asset between Vietnam and India.

The two Prime Ministers were pleased to note that since the establishment of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework in 2016 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Vietnam, bilateral relations have made remarkable progress, with high political trust, cooperation in the fields of defense - security, economy - trade and investment, culture - education and people-to-people exchange all achieving encouraging results.

Of which, bilateral trade turnover has tripled from more than 5 billion USD in 2016 to 15 billion USD in 2023. In 2019, airlines of the two countries opened the first direct flight route between Vietnam and India, creating a big boost in bringing the number of Indian tourists to Vietnam to grow dramatically, 2.5 times (from 170,000 in 2019 to 400,000 in 2023) with 56 flights/week between major cities of the two countries.

On the basis of the solid foundation of 52 years of bilateral relations, in the context of the new position and strength of the two countries as well as facing rapid changes in the regional and world situation, the two Leaders affirmed their determination to strengthen and deepen the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Vietnam and India in the coming years, meeting the aspirations and legitimate interests of the people of the two countries.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to further consolidate traditional areas of cooperation and expand to new potential areas under the motto "Five More", including: higher political trust, deeper defense and security cooperation, more substantive and effective economic-trade and investment cooperation, more open science and technology cooperation, innovation, cultural exchange, and closer people-to-people connections.

The two sides agreed to maintain regular exchanges of delegations and contacts at all levels and channels, and agreed to annually hold meetings between the two Prime Ministers through visits or contacts at multilateral conferences; further strengthen the role of the Joint Committee co-chaired by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries in reviewing and specifying areas of cooperation, and urging the effective implementation of the Action Program to implement the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for the 2024-2028 period.

The two Prime Ministers appreciated the effective implementation of the Joint Statement on Vietnam-India Defense Partnership until 2030 (signed in 2022), agreed to expand cooperation in defense industry and security industry, promote cooperation in maritime security, trust cooperation in cyber security, intelligence exchange and counter-terrorism. India agreed to continue supporting Vietnam in training, coaching and capacity building for Vietnam's defense and security forces.

The two Prime Ministers agreed to implement strong measures towards the goal of doubling two-way trade and investment turnover from the current level by 2030. The two sides agreed and assigned relevant agencies of both sides, through existing mechanisms, to regularly discuss to remove trade barriers as well as promote other trade promotion measures.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh asked India to actively consider the proposal of Vietnamese enterprises to issue new/extend the Certificate of Indian Standards (BIS) for imported goods from Vietnam, and suggested early signing of the Agreement on E-commerce and the Bilateral Trade Agreement to fully exploit the retail market in line with new trends.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh encouraged large corporations and technology billionaires from India to invest in Vietnam, creating large projects that are symbolic of economic cooperation between the two countries, welcoming the shift in supply chains and helping the two countries better participate in the global supply chain.

The two leaders proposed expanding cooperation in science and technology, especially in the fields of core technology, semiconductor chips, artificial intelligence and cooperation in innovation, rare earth mining and processing technology, cooperation in developing the information technology industry and training human resources for the information technology industry in each country, soon moving towards establishing a Digital Partnership Forum and signing a Digital Partnership Agreement.

The two Prime Ministers also agreed to promote cooperation in education-training, culture, tourism, and deepen people-to-people exchanges on the basis of promoting similar values ​​in culture, civilization, history, and spirituality, including Buddhism and Yoga.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government of India for their warm and respectful welcome and invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Vietnam again in the near future.

After the talks, the two sides witnessed the exchange of 9 cooperation documents in the fields of health, law and justice, diplomacy, human resource training, agricultural science, radio and television, tourism, culture, the Action Program to implement the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership 2024-2028 and   Exchange of Notes on Vietnam's accession to the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI).

The two sides adopted a Joint Statement on strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the two Prime Ministers pressed the button to inaugurate the Military Software Park in Nha Trang./.